Direct Payments for Adults

Our service can help you work out how to spend your Personal Budget so you get support how and when you want it and from the people you choose.

Depending on what’s in your Support Plan, you can choose things to help you. For example, getting ready for the day, getting out and about more often, keeping on top of housework, eating the food you like when you want to, or some support to go to college.

You can use your Personal Budget to get support from the council, or get new support from somewhere else using a Direct Payment, or you can choose a bit of both and have a combination.

The important thing is that the support you choose gives you the help you and the council have agreed you need.

The council pays us to help you, so our service is free to you.

Who we can support

We can support anyone over the age of 18 who is eligible for social care or has a Personal Health Budget (PHB).

If you already have a Personal Budget

Want to turn your Personal Budget into a Direct Payment? Get in touch with us and we can start helping you have more say over your support:

Phone: 020 7001 2188

Email: ILS.advice@real.org.uk

How to apply for a Personal Budget

Contact the council’s Assessment and Intervention team on 020 7364 5005 or adultcare@towerhamlets.gov.uk to apply for a Personal Budget.

If you have a social worker, care manager or care coordinator you can ask them for help too.

You can also ask us:

Local Link

Phone: 020 7001 2175

Email: local-link@real.org.uk

Get the Direct Payment support you need

If you already have a Direct Payment, we can usually answer your question relating to it straight away. If you have a detailed query, for example you want to recruit a PA, we’ll work out who is the best person to help you and get them to contact you. This might be your previous worker or it might be someone else.

Contact our Advice Line for help and information.

Advice line hours

Monday to Friday between 10.30am and 3.30pm.

Call 020 7001 2188 (Please leave a message if the line is busy)

Send an email to lLS.advice@real.org.uk

Visit our offices at Jack Dash House, 2 Lawn House Close, E14 9YQ.

Support in your language

You can get support in Bengali/Sylhetti and Somali as well as English:

English Monday – Friday

Bengali/Sylhetti Monday and Thursday

Somali Wednesday

What people say about being an employer using Direct Payments

Here’s what some of our Direct Payments users have to say about being an employer using a Direct Payment, with Real’s support:

“Information and advice is very important to me and it’s nice to know that there’s a support service that I can just go to, or ring up and get the relevant advice whenever I need it”.

“I consider myself a fairly experienced employer, but I still use that service to make sure that I’ve got my facts right, that I know what I’m doing, that I’m protected and that I’m doing it properly”.

“Now I’ve got a PA I can cope with it because I’ve got the support services of Real. They’ll sort it out for me, much better than it was before”.

Get more information

You can get more information about social care on the council’s website. You can find out more about a Personal Budget from the council here where there is information and a booklet to download.